Philosophy and Methodology

Most people favor patent and copyright law because they believe that it generates net wealth — that the value of the innovation stimulated by IP law is significantly greater than the costs of these laws.

If capitalism is self-destroying, as he says it is, if socialism leads to the servile state, and if the distributive state as a practical matter is not feasible, then we have but one choice; and that is a choice between serfdom and death.

The small State can do to Society everything the large State can do, but not so much of it.

The study of U.S. history seen through the lens of economic theory teaches us lessons like: (1) Why did America do so well economically?, (2) Why do we have the problems of war, terrorism, and immigration?, (3) What results from the growth of government?, ...

Hoppe definitively established that the unhampered market is superior in improving social welfare.

Those Americans who twice succeeded in doing away with a central bank were aware of the dangers; but they failed to see that the evils they fought

When the enemy is at the gates, the individual abdicates his self-reliance and places himself unreservedly under the direction of the captain; he g

Carl Menger, from his classic treatise, on the origins of the means of payment.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.

The thought mechanisms that lead some people to like (or, as economists say, have preference for) gambling are of no more economic interest than the reasons why some people like going to soccer games while others like to stay at home. Answering such questions may be a job for psychologists, but it is not one for economists.

Democracy may be a self-limiting disease, as civilization itself seems to be. There are thumping paradoxes in its philosophy, and some of them have a suicidal smack.